The Tale of Ronnie
by Holiday From Real
Summary: Ronnie is a 7 year old girl with a twin brother. She loves her parents a lot and her uncles too. What happens when thinks something is her fault, even though she couldn't have stopped it.
1. One Saturday Morning

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- One Saturday Morning

Summary- It's the sequel to all those Jess stories. Only, it is someone else's POV, I bet that you can't guess.

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders. I happen to own a very big bowl of Frosted Flakes which I enjoy the same way the main character does. What can I say? I'm a chocoholic. Now, let me go eat my Frosted Flakes... (They're great!)

I woke to the smell of chocolate cake. I think I grew up on chocolate cake and I love it. Mom and Nate don't really care for it, but dad and I _love _it. We could live off of chocolate cake. Nate thinks it wouldn't be so bad if we ate it once in a while, but we have it constantly. Either mom served some with breakfast or we had it for desert. When my Uncles came over, she had to make two chocolate cakes.

Technically, not all of them were my Uncles. Steve, Darry, and Pony were my Uncles. Darry and Pony was my dad's, Soda's, brothers, while Steve was my mom's, Jessica's, half-brother. Two-Bit was just a good friend, but I considered him my Uncle. He has a sister, she's our baby-sitter. I don't call her my Aunt, I call her Miss Mathews. I know mom thinks that funny, but I like to call her that.

My name is Veronica Lynn Curtis, but if you call me that I will knock your teeth loose. So what if I'm only seven? I will. I like to be called Ronnie, it makes me sound tough. I'm supposed to be a girl and all, but one time I buried a kid's head in the sand because he tried to hold my hand. I have a twin brother named Nathaniel David Curtis, but he prefers Nate. He won't tell you though; I'm the only person he talks to. Nate is really attached to me, or so my mother says. In kindergarten, we weren't in the same class so he sat in the middle of his classroom and started to cry. I thought it was funny, mom however, didn't.

I shook Nate a little to wake him up. He doesn't like mornings. He rubbed his eyes and gently pushed me off to the side. I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen. The kitchen of our house is attached to the living room, so I can sit at the table and watch television. Mom already had out our breakfast. She knew exactly what I liked, Frosted Flakes in chocolate milk with a nice glass of chocolate milk. I figured my Uncles were coming over for dinner since the cake wasn't on the table. I took the straw that was in my chocolate milk and started to blow bubbles. My mom looked at me and I stopped.

I drink my chocolate milk with a straw, but Nate drinks it without a straw. He won't admit it, but I know he likes getting the milk moustache. I started to eat my cereal when I saw that the television wasn't on. I ran over to it and turned it on and looked through the channels trying to find something good on. I found something good, Mickey Mouse. I knew my mom didn't like it much, but Uncle Two-Bit liked it. He had me watch it with him every time he came over here. For my birthday, he always bought me and Nate a new Mickey stuffed animal. I had three Minnies and four Mickeys.

I heard dad coming out of the bedroom and I ran over to him. I gave him a nice big hug and he picked me up. He made a comment about me being to big to pick up. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and grinned. Mom said I have dad's grin and I could get away with murder. I'm not ever going to try that. I'll stick with getting away with burying kids in the sand. He put me back down and I went back into the kitchen to finish eating my cereal in chocolate milk. I love chocolate. Dad ruffled Nate's hair a little bit, Nate blushed. He doesn't really like it when people touch him. Then dad kissed mom. Nate looked away and I went 'ew'.

I heard the door open and I went to go see who it was. It was Uncle Two-Bit. He's my favorite Uncle. I don't mind Uncle Ponyboy that much; he normally reads or writes; he's in college. Uncle Darry comes over sometimes. When he comes on school days it's to pick up dad to take him to work. I see him on the weekends sometimes. Uncle Steve doesn't do much, he either plays cards with dad, they're best friends, watches television, talks to dad, or eats over. He doesn't do much with Nate and me. Sometimes, on holidays like Thanksgiving, they all play football. I'm not allowed to play because I'm too young. When I get older I hope they'll let me play. I hope they don't say I'm not allowed to play because I'm a girl. I'm just as tough as any of them.

I gave Uncle Two-Bit a hug and went back to see if I could finally finish my cereal. It seemed to be taking forever. I finished it and went to sit next to him on the couch. Nate was already in my seat. That made me mad. I pouted, hoping it would get Nate to move. It didn't Nate was immune to my pouts; he seemed to be the only one. Finally I gave up and climbed onto Two-Bit's lap. I grinned and he let me. That grin was really handy sometimes.

The door opened again and it was Uncle Steve. I waved hi and turned my attention back to the television. I didn't care for Uncle Steve that much. He was kind of boring and I wouldn't have guessed he belonged to this family. But then again mom said that they had different mothers. Maybe that was all it took to make him boring, to have a different mom.

Apparently Uncle Darry's house used to be the place that everybody met. It changed when we were born and mom and dad moved out. We didn't like going to places early in the morning. You should see the fights we have with Nate every morning before school. He hides under our bed. Yes, our bed. We share a bed because he is afraid of the dark. Yeah, it may sound a little strange, a seven year old that is afraid of the dark.

I loved Saturdays. Mom and dad didn't work on Saturdays and Uncle Two-Bit watched cartoons with us in the morning. Then, I could watch boring shows for the rest of the day, or read a book, or lay on my bed all day. But my favorite thing to do was to go outside and practice cartwheels. Mom is always afraid I'm going to get hurt, but I won't. I'm really careful. I do them in a really grassy spot where the ground is soft. On parts of our yard, it's really hard and it hurts.

I told mom that I was going to practice my cartwheels. She groaned. I flashed my grin and started to go into the yard. With my grin, there isn't anything I can't do.


	2. Can I Have A Dog?

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Can I Have A Dog?

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers:

BlackLightningDX- Nate was based completely on that girl from camp. She didn't talk and she didn't like chocolate. I mean, how can you not like chocolate? Ronnie, well some of my little sister went into her.

Note- It's hard to write as a seven year old, that was oh-so long ago. The 31st of August marks my Grandma's one year death anniversary. That's why I got this out so fast; I'm not going to be on the computer tomorrow. There's just a lot to do. I need to go to the cemetery and all that jazz.

I can almost turn the perfect cartwheel. It's actually quite difficult. I was half way through one when somebody grabbed my hands and tugged. I fell onto my knees. I was glad I didn't get hurt. I looked up to see Nate staring down at me. I would hit anybody else, but Nate was different. He gave me a smile and I smiled back.

"Wanna learn how to do that?" I asked him. He nodded his head happily. We spent most of the afternoon working on his cartwheels. He couldn't do them as good as I can, but he was okay. We went inside for lunch. I wondered what we would be having for lunch.

"Mama," I whined coming inside. I knew she hated it when I called her mama. It got on her nerves. I don't know why I do it. I love my parents to death. I heard her groan.

"What's for lunch?" I asked her. She was inside the kitchen and I saw she was making peanut butter and jelly.

"Mom, you know I don't like this," I told her. She put a sandwich in front of me. I pulled the bread off the top to look inside. Good, it wasn't peanut butter and jelly. It was ham and cheese. I ran over to her and gave her a hug. She always remembered what I didn't like, and what I did. Nate had gotten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I hate peanut butter, it's disgusting. I grabbed two cokes off the counter and gave one to Nate. He nodded his head as if to thank me. If mom wasn't in the kitchen he would've said something.

"Where'd dad go?" I asked noticing that we were the only three people in the house. She shrugged. What if, what if they had a fight? What would happen?

"Did you guys have a fight?" I asked. She turned around and looked at me.

"Never, now eat your lunch," she told me. I took a bite of my sandwich and wrinkled my nose. She put it on rye bread. I didn't like rye bread. I went to go put it in the garbage.

"Are you wasting a perfectly good sandwich?" Mom asked seeing my get ready to dump it into the garbage pail.

"No, it's not good. I don't like rye bread. Besides, I wouldn't be wasting it if we had a dog," I answered. She rolled her eyes. I asked for a dog at least twice a day.

"Ronnie, we don't have enough money to afford a dog," she told me for about the millionth time. I pouted and stomped off to my bedroom. I have tried the grin before, but it didn't work in this case. Maybe I wouldn't be able to get away with murder. But, then again, she's my mom. She's known me since I was born.

I looked for a coloring book and crayons. I liked to color, and I'm very good at staying inside the lines. Nate can also color real well, but he prefers to draw. He's a really good artist. I envy him for that sometimes.

I heard him come in. Everybody always thinks he is _so _quiet, but you can actually tell when he comes into a room. You can hear him walking. I waved to him and he waved back. He got out a few pieces of paper and started to draw some things. He drew some monkeys.

His favorite animals are monkeys. My favorite animals are dogs. I really want one, but mom always says no. I've never asked dad. When mom says no, always ask dad. I'd ask dad when he came back home. I wish I knew where he went. He and mom didn't have a fight, I can tell. Mom wouldn't have been like that if they had a fight. Mom would've been crying her eyeballs out.

Nate drew a bunch of monkeys and then he handed the piece of paper to me. He draws things and I color them. I heard the front door open and I ran out to see who it was.

"Dad," I called and gave him a hug. I waited until mom left the room.

"Daddy, can I get a dog?" I asked him using my puppy dog eyes. I hoped he would be able to give into that.

"What did your mom say?" he asked back. Man, I couldn't lie to him. He would talk to mom about it if I said she said yes, and they'd find out I didn't tell the truth.

"No," I told him and frowned.

"You can't have a dog, we don't have the money," he told me. Why did they care so much about the money? It didn't really matter that much did it? I sighed and went back into the bedroom. I sat back down next to Nate.

"Dad said we can't have a dog," I told him. I really wanted a dog. Nate just shrugged and continued to draw.

"Can you draw me a dog?" I asked him. He nodded proudly and got a new piece of paper and began to draw a dog. He finished it and gave it to me.

"Thank you," I told him. I gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. He wrinkled his nose and wiped it with his hand.

"I don't got cooties ya know."


	3. Can We Keep It?

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Can We Keep It?

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

BlackLightningDX- Money is always the problem. But when you have quite a few Uncles, you never know what you can get.

Note- I'm not supposed to be on the computer. But, we went to the cemetery already and then my dad decides to have his friend over. Okay, my mom is crying her eyes out and he invites his friend over? Oh, well, so I got rights on the computer. Yes, I am halfway done with my summer assignment (50 post-it notes on Oedipus Rex by Sophocles)! If any of you tuff people feel like doing the other half for me, feel free. First, you have to read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Then, you need to make post-it notes. You need 2 theme notes, 7 notes on Literary element notes (such as irony, simile, metaphor, foreshadowing), 10 fact notes, 6 character notes, 5 reaction notes, 10 vocabulary notes, 5 important quote notes (why you chose the quotes), 5 question notes. So, that's about 50 post-it notes, each must include a page and paragraph number. But you can just e-mail them to me. Just kidding, although I will _love _you if you do it for me. I need it by Labor Day weekend. RIP Grandma "K", we love you so much.

I grabbed a thumbtack from my desk and put the picture on the wall. I know my mom doesn't like extra holes in the wall, but she deserves it. All I want is a dog and she says no. I tried to draw a few dogs, but they didn't come out good. I crumpled up the paper and threw it at the garbage pail. Nate's head got in the way. He looked at me and frowned.

"Sorry," I giggled. He shook his head and looked at me like I was weird. I rolled my eyes, I think I get that from my mom, and went back into the living room.

"Uncle Steve, if I get a dog can I keep it at your house?" I asked him. He gave me the same look Nate had.

"I think your mom already said no dog," he told me.

"Yeah, but it won't be in the house. 'Sides, I'll come over and visit you more often."

"No," he said and walked away before I got the chance to grin. I crossed my arms across my chest and stomped my foot. This was _not _going the way I planned. Who would I ask next? I already knew Uncle Darry would say no. Uncle Ponyboy was in college still, I think, so I wasn't going to ask him. What would Uncle Two-Bit say?

"Uncle Two-Bit," I called looking for him. I opened the front door and went to go look for him. I got as far as the sidewalk.

"Veronica Curtis," my mom said sternly. She grabbed my wrist.

"What have I told you about walking alone?" I sighed.

"Don't," I answered her. I walked back inside, following her.

"Where's Uncle Two-Bit?" I asked her.

"I don't know, why don't you go play with your brother?"

"Mama," I said, "do you know where Uncle Two-Bit is?"

"He'll be here soon, now _please _go play with your brother." I groaned and walked back into the room. Nate was busy crumpling papers and tossing them in the garbage pail.

"Are you gonna play basketball?" I asked him. He shook his head no. I didn't feel like listing all the sports and he wasn't in a mood to breathe a word today. Don't ask how I know, it must be a twin thing. I heard footsteps in the hallway. I turned to see Uncle Two-Bit leaning in the doorway.

"Your mom said you were lookin' for me," he said. I nodded. I was going to ask him for a dog and tell him mom said yes. I knew he'd never ask mom about it. Once mom saw the dog she'd fall in love with it.

"Yeah, mom said you could take me to get a dog, can we go now?" I gave Nate a death glare. There wasn't any need to, he'd never say anything.

"I don't see why not, c'mon." I gave him a hug and went into the kitchen.

"Mom, Uncle Two-Bit's takin' me out for a bit," I told her. I grinned. I knew she would let me go. If she asked any questions I could always say that he was taking me to get ice cream or something. If she wondered, Nate wasn't in the mood to come with us.

"Be careful," she warned me and I went to where Two-Bit was and grabbed his hand. I practically dragged him out to the car. I sat in the backseat. Uncle Two-Bit normally drove fast, but he had common sense. He drove at a decent speed.

"I want that one," I said pointing at the dark puppy in the corner. Uncle Two-Bit asked me if I was sure a couple of times. I kept telling him yes. He got me the dog, it was so cute mom just _had _to say yes. We bought a few more things for it and then decided to go home.

The dog was small so it fit on my lap. It must've been really young. I nervously rubbed its back all the way home. I didn't say much, which was a surprise.

"Uncle Two-Bit, I want the dog to be a surprise, so don't say anything to anybody, okay?" He nodded and parked near the house. I quietly walked into the house and into my bedroom. It was easy. Uncle Steve and dad were wrestling on the floor and mom was trying to break it up. I put the dog on the floor.

Nate's eyes got really big. I don't think he thought I was actually going to do it. I didn't know what to name it. What do you name a dog your not sure if you are going to keep? Nate rubbed the dog's tummy and the dog licked his hand. He smiled and I did too. Nate was only five minutes younger than me, but sometimes it seemed like years.

"Do you like it?" He nodded.

"I just hope we can keep it," I told him. He nodded it agreement. I wasn't going to ask in front of everybody, I couldn't get Two-Bit in trouble.

"Mom, can you come here?" I asked. I heard her footsteps getting closer and closer.

"What is it, baby?" she asked. I picked up the dog.

"Can we keep it?"


	4. Chocolate

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Chocolate

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Hideeho135- Thanks

BlackLightningDX- What she does is close enough to killing her…

Note- I _hate _shopping with my sister… She's going to drive me insane one of these days.

"Veronica Lynn Curtis," my mom said after I showed her the dog. She only used my full name when she was _really _mad. It's only happened about twice before. I gave her a look that said '_please _don't make a big deal out of this'.

"Sodapop, get in here," she called. She was holding her temper really well.

"Yeah?" dad asked rushing to mom's side.

"Look what your daughter brought home," she said pointing at the dog. I held it closer to me.

"Oh, Veronica," I heard dad groan. I sat on the bed. I was really scared.

"Please don't get mad at Uncle Two-Bit," I begged. I didn't want Two-Bit mad at me because I tricked him.

"So, Two-Bit got you the dog, after we told you no? Veronica what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," I said close to crying. I felt the bed move. I saw Nate next to me petting the dog. He looked at mom and dad. I hoped he had more power over them then I did.

"Can we _please _keep it?" I whined.

"I don't know," my mom said. She walked out of the room.

"Dinner will be ready soon," she told us.

"Daddy, can we _please _keep him? _Please?_"

"I don't know, we really can't afford a dog," he said. I stuck my bottom lip out further than it's ever gone before. I stood up while holding the dog. I ran out of the house and down the road. It was the farthest I had ever gone without anybody with me. I ran to Two-Bit's house, hoping that Miss Mathews would be home.

"Ronnie, how come your here?" she asked. I pointed to the dog and asked if I could come in. She let me in. The house was a mess, but Two-Bit lived there and their mom worked all the time. I sat on the couch petting the dog and watching the television. Mickey wasn't on so I was watching some boring show. I heard the door open but I figured Miss Mathews was having some friends over.

I should guess again. Miss Mathews must've called my mom because she was standing in front of the television with her arms across her chest and a serious look on her face.

"You are in some serious trouble. You tricked Two-Bit into buying you a dog, you ran out of the house without telling us where you were going, you were without an adult, and you went off the property." Did I really break _all_ those rules?

"If you just let me get a dog-" I began but she cut me off.

"Thanks for calling me," she said to Miss Mathews. "Let's go, get in the car," she told me. I listened to her. I didn't want to get in anymore trouble. I got home and everybody was looking at me. I figured they must have told them what was going on.

"I'm sorry Uncle Two-Bit," I said. I walked back into my room. My mom and dad were following me. I put the dog on the ground and he walked out of the room.

"Nate, could you please go?" Mom asked. Nate followed the dog out. I climbed onto my bed and put my face into my pillow.

"Veronica, I'd appreciate it if you looked at us while we were talking to you." I looked at my mom.

"Veronica, do you know how much trouble you are in? You broke the rules and disobeyed us."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"You better be, but you still are getting punished. No chocolate cake for tonight," my mom told me. I gasped. Did she just say no chocolate cake? That's not fair. Hey, wait, I'm going to name my dog chocolate.

"That's not fair," I whined. Mom held up her hand, she wasn't in the mood. I could tell.

"No chocolate cake tonight, or tomorrow. You broke the rules, now you have to face the consequences." I stuck out my bottom lip again. This time it went further than the last time.

"Are we gonna keep Chocolate?" I asked.

"What?" my mom asked confused.

"Chocolate, my dog, are we keepin' him?"

"We'll see," she said, "but, you made us hold dinner. Wash your hands and come inside." I walked into the bathroom to wash my hands.

I sat down at the kitchen table, in my usual spot. Nate was on one side of me and Uncle Two-Bit was on the other side. I didn't say anything to anybody the whole time. I ate my food quietly and when I was done I put my plate in the sink. I went into the bedroom and got into my pajamas. If I wasn't getting desert, I was going to sleep. I felt somebody next to me and I figured it was Nate. It wasn't. My dog, Chocolate, was next to me. I rubbed his tummy for a while.

"Good night," mom and dad said after tucking Nate and I in. I didn't say anything back. A few minutes later, it could've been a half hour, I felt Nate get up. My stomach was growling and I wished I had eaten more at dinner. I must've fallen asleep, because the next thing I know, Nate was shaking my shoulder and he was holding a handful of chocolate cake.

"Nate, you probably left crumbs everywhere," I whispered. I couldn't be mad at him. I took the cake from his hand and ate it. He licked some of the icing off of his fingers. Chocolate licked the crumbs that must've been on the bed. Then Chocolate licked my hand until it was clean. Nate gave him his hand to take the icing off, chocolate isn't Nate's favorite. He likes white icing, I don't. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. Maybe mom would change her mind and let me have some cake tomorrow.


	5. For a Week?

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- For a Week?

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Darkravenx0- God, shopping with my sister is _really _boring. LOL, I do remember that story I e-mailed you. That was hilarious. The cake questions are answered here.

XAmberX- Maybe Nate talks later on, not in this chapter. I do have quite a few written.

BlackLightningDX- Because, she is 7 and she doesn't know any better.

Note- If anybody wants to pester me about writing or working on my summer assignment, feel free to IM me (AOL) gcbabe1891. 89 percent of the time I am on. I'm always writing and only sometimes do I have an away message up, so feel free. I won't bite, I'm human. (We think…)

I woke up on Sunday to the smell of eggs cooking. Hopefully mom forgot about the no chocolate cake thing. I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. There was half a cake in the middle of the table. I tried not to look at it. Mom placed a plate of scrambled eggs in front of me. She put a glass of orange juice near my plate. Wait, no chocolate milk?

"You only said cake last night," I pointed out to her, hoping that she made a mistake.

"Well, I decided this morning when I saw a nice piece of cake missing that you won't be allowed to have anything chocolate for the next week." I got mad at Nate. He had to take that piece of cake for me. I looked at the orange juice. I hoped it didn't have any pulp in it. I don't like pulp orange juice. I hated it when it got stuck in between my teeth. I looked to the side of me. Dad was already eating his breakfast. I think it's funny; he eats jelly on his eggs.

"I can't believe you really eat jelly on your eggs," I said. When I was younger I thought he just did that to make me laugh. If he did, it worked. I don't believe a lot of people until I see it for myself.

"You should try it," he told me. He handed me the jelly. I thought about it for a while. Finally, I took my fork and put a tiny bit of jelly on my eggs.

"It's no chocolate, but it's good," I said smiling. My mom let out a little laugh.

"You are exactly like your dad," my mom told me and went to go wake up Nate. She came out of the bedroom, with Chocolate behind her.

"You let the dog sleep with you guys last night?" she asked. She sounded annoyed. I nodded and put more jelly on my eggs.

Nate came out rubbing his eyes. His hair looked kind of funny. He must have done something to it in his sleep. Maybe he had a bad dream; I tried not to laugh at him.

"You should try some jelly and eggs," I told him. He looked at me like I was crazy and then sat down. Mom handed him two hard boiled eggs. I think hard boiled eggs are a waste of time. It takes so long to boil them and then you need to peel the shell. Nate had that down pretty good, he could peel eggs quickly. He unpeeled it and put the egg in his mouth. The whole thing, he just stuck it in his mouth.

"Nate," mom said, "please eat the egg the right way. If you don't, I won't make you them anymore." He took the egg out of his mouth, and broke it in half. He ate it slowly, to please mom. She put some chocolate milk in front of him. I finished my eggs quickly and went to get dressed. It's not fair he got chocolate milk and I didn't. I could always tell mom the truth, but I don't think she'd believe me. She'd want to hear it from Nate, and Nate wouldn't tell her.

I stayed in the room until Nate came in. I was a little mad at him for that thing with the cake last night. I walked out of the room and turned the television on. I sat down on the couch.

"Ronnie, you need to get your dog some water," my mom said. I went and got a bowl and filled it up with water. I put it on the floor in the corner. Chocolate went over and started to drink the water.

"Your dad and I decided that you can keep the dog, but you need to train it and take care of it. Nate can help if he wants, but I won't and your father won't."

"Okay," I told her. I think when she says father it makes dad sound old. He's really not old. He's about 26, I think, I'm not sure. It doesn't matter any way. He doesn't look old. Grandparents look old. I don't have any grandparents.

My grandma and grandpa on my dad's side died in a car wreck before I was born. My mom's mom died of a stroke before I was born. Her dad died of cancer before I was born. They all died before I knew them. Mom said I would've liked her mom, but not her dad. Nobody really talked about my dad's parents. I don't mind not having any, except, there was one time. My friend got neat stuff from her grandparents and she was bragging about it. That was the only time I _really_ wanted grandparents, so I could get neat stuff. Mom said that if her mom didn't die then she wouldn't have met dad, so I couldn't say I wanted her back. Then, my mom said that her dad wouldn't have even sent a card in the mail, so I didn't want him. I guess I wanted my dad's parents. I wonder if they were nice.

Nate came out of the bedroom dressed. I asked him what he wanted to do today and he just shrugged. Sometimes, I hate the fact that he doesn't talk. Nobody knows why he can't talk, I know he can talk. He's said a few words to me before. He has a really quiet voice and he talks in a whisper. He only talks if we are the only two in the room.

Having a dog wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. After it peed on the floor a few times, it wasn't fun. Mom made me clean it up. I was grouchy the first week; I hadn't had chocolate in a while. I guess I deserve it; I lied to Two-Bit and disobeyed my parents. But, it still seems a little unfair, no chocolate for a _week_?


	6. Did He Just Say Something?

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Did He Just Say Something?

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsider

Reviewers-

XAmberX- Dogs _always _pee at the worst moment. My dog pees whenever my dad's friend Jim comes in the house…

Punk4ever- Thank you

BlackLightningDX- I guess it is true

Note- Oh my god, my sister is _obsessed _with Emilio Estevez... I mean _obsessed_. The worst part about it is she makes me watch every Emilio Estevez movie with her. Tonight's (8/1) movie is The Mighty Ducks.

I was ready to go to bed one night. It had been a long day, Nate and I spent it trying to train Chocolate. Chocolate didn't like to listen to us. Well, listen to me, Nate didn't talk. I was already in my pajamas and Nate was in the bathroom getting into his. Nate had this thing about changing in front of people. He didn't do it in front of _anybody_. Nate came in and sat on the bed next to me.

"Nate, why don't you talk?" He just shrugged.

"There _must _be a reason," I said. I wanted to know. I was dying to know.

"Ronnie," my mom called from the living room, "your dog peed on the floor! I just cleaned the floor! Come in here and clean it _now_!" I groaned and got off the bed. I went into the kitchen and got a wet cloth. I found a dry one so I could dry up the floor.

"Where is it?" I asked. Mom pointed to a spot on the floor and wrinkled her nose. I bent down on my knees and cleaned it up. I walked back into the room and Nate was already asleep. He should be, tomorrow was the first day of school. I hoped he wouldn't give mom any problems tomorrow morning.

Nate rolled me over onto my back and pulled open my eyelid. The room was still dark.

"What is it?" I snapped. He backed away.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you. What's wrong?" I saw him look around the room. He checked for signs of people.

"Nightmare," he said. I sighed. He only spoke in single words.

"Do you care to explain?" He shook his head 'no'. I gave him a hug and went to get him a glass of water. I saw the television on and tried to see who it was on the couch. I just shrugged figuring somebody left the television on. I got a cup and filled it with water and walked back to our room.

"Here ya go," I told him handing him the cup. He nodded and drank it. He handed it back to me. I had to go bring it back; he didn't like walking at night. On the way back I decided to go see who was on the couch. It looked like mom, but I couldn't tell.

"Mom," I said softly. I saw the figure move.

"What is it sweet heart?" she asked.

"Why are you out here?" She sighed and sat up.

"I couldn't get to sleep, but you should go back to sleep. Good night," she told me. I gave her a kiss and went back to the bedroom. Nate was already asleep. He falls asleep really quick. I put my face into the pillow and slept until mom woke me up.

She looked _horrible_. Her hair was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes. She sounded tired, like she hadn't slept in a _long _time. She was fustrated when I tried to go back asleep again. She picked me up and dropped me on the chair.

"I am not in the mood to put up with you," she told me. She handed me a slice of cake, an egg, and a glass of chocolate milk. Nate was happily eating his hard boiled eggs, the right way. I finished my food and went to get dressed. Mom had bought me a new pair of pants and a nice shirt. I didn't like skirts, not one bit. The last time she bought me one, I threw it in the road and watched a car or two run over it. I walked out of the room so Nate could get dressed.

"Mom, are you okay?" I asked her. She didn't eat anything at breakfast.

"I'm fine, I just feel a little sick. I'm gonna stay home from work today. Where's your hairbrush?" I put my hand to my hair. I _hated _getting my hair brushed. Mom sighed. I went into the bathroom and got my hairbrush. I handed it to her and she brushed it. I winced at the pain and was glad when she finished. She put it into a nice ponytail. I loved my hair. It was dark brown and pretty long. I don't ever remember it getting cut.

"One day, we are gonna get your haircut, it's too long." I backed up.

"Mama," I whined, "you can't cut my hair. You told me it looked pretty long."

"Yeah, I guess so. Shouldn't your brother be done by now?" Didn't she know he was probably hiding under the bed?

"I'll get him," I told her and opened the bedroom door. I saw Nate's feet sticking out from under the bed. I crawled under there with him.

"C'mon on Nate, we gotta go to school," I told him.

"No," he said sternly. That was the loudest I heard his voice.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Too many people," he answered slightly softer. Was he afraid of people?

"Are you scared?" I asked him. I was finally getting more than three words out of him in one day. It was only the morning. He nodded.

"Why?" He didn't have time to answer. My mom stood in the door way and cleared her throat.

"We gotta go," she said and I crawled out.

"C'mon, you'll be with me," I told him. He got out and grabbed my hand. Mom put on her slippers and went out to the car. She looked funny. Her hair was in a sloppy ponytail and she was wearing what seemed to be a pair of dad's pants, but I don't know.

I had to drag Nate out of the car and he squeezed my hand until I felt it would fall off. I walked to the playground and dragged Nate with me. Mom had dropped us off early, and we weren't allowed in the building before the time school started. They didn't want the school being destroyed; all though it would get ruined either way. There were two boys standing a tree. One of them was leaning against it and I got very scared.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Curtis couple."


	7. More Talking From Nate

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- More Talking From Nate

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsider

Reviewers-

BlackLightningDX- You'll find out…

XAmberX- the Curtis Couple, my sister thought of that one while she was reading it. She deserves all the credit, not me. -Sob-

Note- There isn't really a note for this chapter. What am I supposed to say? Okay, I'm writing this at 12:00 pm on August 1st, 2005. Yeah, that sounds good.

I felt Nate get closer to me. My hand was probably turning purple and getting _very _close to falling off. I recognized the one boy as the one I had buried in the sand. I inhaled and walked closer to him.

"What do you want?" I asked. If there wasn't a tree behind them they would've turned and ran. The one backed into a tree and the other ran. I walked close to him. Our noses were almost touching.

"You and your friends better not bother me or my brother," I told him in my toughest voice.

"Or what?" he asked.

"Remember last year?" I asked. He nodded.

"How would you like that again?" He laughed. I was threatening to bury his head in the sand and he _laughed_. Nate tugged at my sleeve and I turned around. There was that other boy there.

"Run," I hissed to Nate and he nodded. He ran over to my friends at the swings. The one behind me pushed me into the other. The one kid was bigger and older than me. I think he was in the fourth grade. I was only in the second grade along with the one boy. I gulped.

"What's a matter, scared? That is too bad, but we don't like little Greaser girls beating us up." It's not my fault he had scared me. Besides, I was two years younger than him, they could've been nicer.

"We're gonna do whatever we want to you or your brother. Where is he?" I wasn't going to answer them. I was going to protect Nate. I'm his older sister, even if it is by a few minutes.

"Are you gonna answer us?" No way, I wasn't going to answer him. The one behind me yanked on my hair. Maybe I was going to get it cut. I didn't want it cut, but I didn't like it pulled. I shook my head. They could pull my hair out, but I wasn't going to get Nate hurt. I gave the guy holding my shoulders a punch in the stomach and wriggled out of his grip. I ran to the school. I knew I couldn't go in, but there was always a teacher.

"Ronnie," my friend called. She was following Nate. My friends got along with Nate, but then again, how do you _not _get along with him? Nate gave me a hug, he probably happy I was okay. I waved to her and the teacher's called us into the building. I had class with my brother (as always) and my friend. As well as that boy, I noticed him as soon as I sat down next to Nate. He came in a purposely bumped into our desks.

"Watch it, you aren't so tough with out your friend," I told him. He rolled his eyes. I looked ahead waiting for the teacher to come in. Soon, he came in. I couldn't wait for lunch hour. We could eat lunch and then go back out on the playground.

Nate had forgotten his lunch at home so I shared mine. I only got half a sandwich, half a banana, and two cookies. After lunch, we went out into the playground. I sat at the on the swings next to Nate and my friend. The boys from this morning pushed me off the swing.

"I was on that," I said and kicked the big one in the shin.

"Too bad, hey, why doesn't this kid talk?" he asked walking over to Nate. I walked over to him and smacked him on the back.

"Leave my brother alone," I told him. He turned around to face me.

"I'm about two years older than you, so you shouldn't tell me what to do," he said. My friend had left as soon as they came over. I'd have to talk to her about that later. This guy and I had a staring match before the teacher blew her whistle. I grinned as I tripped him. He said some words I'm supposed to say. I grabbed Nate's hand and walked back into class.

At the end of the day I waited for my mom as usual. I saw our car pull up and I swung open the door.

"Dad?" I asked surprised. Nate climbed in and I followed him.

"Mom wasn't feeling to well. She's asleep. So, when we get home, be quiet, especially you Nate," he said turning around. Nate grinned and I laughed.

"Is she sick?" I asked.

"No, she just hasn't slept well the past few nights and she's been up early," he said pulling out of the parking lot. I said 'oh' and we went home in silence.

I took the dog out and made sure he had water and food. I sat down at the table and started to do my homework. Dad put a glass of chocolate milk in front of me.

"What's for dinner?" I asked him.

"I was thinking spaghetti, it's easy enough," he answered.

"What color is it tonight?" I asked and laughed.

"I think I won't change the color tonight. You know, 'cause your mom isn't feeling to well." I nodded and finished my homework. I walked quietly to mom's bedroom to see how she was feeling. She was asleep so I walked into my bedroom. Nate was sitting on the bed.

"Did you do your homework?" He shook his head.

"Why not?" I asked him. He handed me the homework we had to do. Then he went and shut the bedroom door.

"Don't understand," he told me softly. I sighed and looked at the homework. I had just done this stuff two seconds ago and it was _really _easy. Nate was always ahead of the class last year. Why wasn't he this year? I took a second glance at the homework. This wasn't the stuff we were given. I didn't understand it.

"Where'd you get this?"

"The boy," he told me. The boy, what was that supposed to mean?

"That was picking on you today," he said clearing things up.

"How long have you been doing his homework?" He held up two fingers.

"Two, since last year?" I asked. He nodded. No wonder Nate was ahead, he was being bullied into doing third grade work. But, I was always with him. Why didn't I know about this?

"Is this part of why you don't talk?" He hasn't said much since birth, but he used to talk to me every day. Since last year he got really quiet. He nodded a little bit.

"Why else don't you talk?"


	8. Sick

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Sick

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsider

Reviewers-

XAmberX- The quiet ones are always smart, with the exception of me.

Punk4ever- Die evil fourth graders…

BlackLightningDX- Sucks for you… I don't start until September 7th. Why do they insist on starting in the middle of a week?

Note- I'm kind of tired, but I had this idea so I had to type it out. Thank god my laptop decided to work today. Where would I be if it didn't? Ah, yes, I would be writing this down on paper and I can't read my own hand writing. That's a bad thing. I found out my mom is having surgery Friday which makes me her little servant for about a whole week. Doesn't that sound fun?

"Scared," he replied. I _hated _his one word answers. I never learned a lot from them. So, he was scared. What was he scared of?

"Are you scared of talking? Or, are you scared if being wrong?" I was going to find out. Even if took me all night, I was going to find out.

"I don't know," he answered looking at the bed.

"You _have _to know, or else, you would talk," I told him. Maybe if I got him to talk, he wouldn't be bullied around as much. I wouldn't have to watch him as much. Not that I hate watching him, it just gets annoying. We were called in for dinner. Mom was looking very tired and was only picking at her plate of plain spaghetti. When I have spaghetti, I eat it with a lot of of sauce. Nate doesn't like too much sauce.

"Hi mom," I said. I sat across from her. She barely looked up at me. Her face was pale.

"You look really sick, right Nate?" I asked. I looked at him. I begged for him to just say 'yeah', maybe it would make mom feel better.

"Uh-huh," he said and stared down at his plate. His cheeks turned bright red. Mom attempted to smile but held her head. She looked _really _bad. This was the worst I have seen her. Dad ruffled Nate's hair. He sunk lower in his chair and was trying not to smile. He was really embarrassed. All he said was 'uh-huh', but it was enough to embarrass him.

After dinner mom went back into the bedroom. Dad couldn't take off from work so he called up Miss Mathews to see if she would come in early. She was going to bring us to school on her way to school and pick us up.

"Nate, I'm proud of you," I said as I slipped under the covers. I could see him grinning.

"It wasn't too bad, was it?" I asked.

"No, but I don't like it," he answered.

"Good night," I told him.

"Good night," he echoed.

"C'mon Ronnie," I heard my dad say. Why was he still here?

"You need to be up before I go to work," he said and shook me gently. I opened my eyes and sat up. Oh yeah, I remember now. He was waking us up and getting our breakfast ready before he went to work. We would be home for about a half an hour alone before Miss Mathews came. Well, we wouldn't be alone, but mom was asleep.

Dad gave me an extra big piece of cake that he made. I like dad's better, the icing is sweeter. When he makes my chocolate milk, it's chocolatier. He adds extra chocolate syrup to it. We got dressed before he left. I looked out the window and waved to Uncle Darry as they drove away.

Miss Mathews came in and picked us up. I let mom know where we were going. She wouldn't remember when she completely woke up, but I felt better telling her. We weren't early, we were almost late. Miss Mathews is a more responsible driver than her brother. I said good-bye and walked over to the tree where Nate was supposed to give that guy his homework.

I saw the guy and marched over to him. Nate was following closer behind. I punched him.

"Never, ever make my brother do your homework," I said. I grabbed Nate's hand and walked towards the building.

After school, Miss Mathews came to pick us up.

"Do you know what is wrong with my mom?" I asked her. She thought about it for a while.

"I don't know; do you have a lot of homework?" she asked. I shook my head. When we got home I finished it quickly and went outside to play with Chocolate.

Dad came outside to tell me to say good-bye to Miss Mathews. I ran inside and gave her a big hug. I really liked her. Nate thought she was okay. Nate didn't talk much today. He just said thanks for what I did. I was really glad that kid didn't beat me up.

"So, Ronnie, when I came home, Miss Mathews said that the principle called. Why would the principle call?" dad asked me. If I played dumb, maybe I wouldn't get in trouble. I shrugged.

"Are you sure you don't know? I called him back; do you know what he said?" I shrugged again.

"He said that you hit a boy, did you know that?" I shrugged again. If it was mom, I would've been in trouble, but it wasn't mom. It was dad, and he would find it funny. I hoped.

"Ronnie," he said.

"Okay, I only did it 'cause he was makin' Nate do his homework. He was in fourth grade!" Nate got red; he didn't want people to know.

"Don't tell mom, please. I know if somebody was bullying Uncle Ponyboy, you would've hit them. Am I right?" Dad nodded.

"Don't tell mom, she's not feeling too well, we can't get her upset," I said. I went into my bedroom and looked for a book to read. I didn't find any good books so I went into the living room to watch television. I walked past my mom getting sick in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and pulled her hair out of her face.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" I asked. She shook her head.

"I need to ask dad something, can you get him for me?" I nodded.

"Dad, mom wants you," I told him. A few minutes later, mom and dad both came out of the bathroom. Mom went into her bedroom and dad walked towards me.

"I need to do something; can you stay here and behave?" I nodded. I think I can behave.


	9. Just Tell Me

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Just Tell Me

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

XAmberX- I love people that suck up!

Thegirloutsider- I can't believe people think my work rocks. YAY!

And to BlackLightningDX whom didn't review the last chapter, but she is so caught up with school that I won't hold it against her.

Note- You'll notice that when they go to the Dairy Queen, Nate only gets fries and a shake. My brother has a friend that only gets fires and a shake when they go to a fast food place. The kid is a _really _picky eater. When we had Chinese food he only ate fried rice and wanton soup. He eats pizza and drinks iced tea, and likes ice cream Watermelon rolls. Along with the occasional hot dog, other than that, I have _never _seen him more. My sister held a Mighty Ducks marathon today. All I can hear is 'quack, quack, quack', yeah, and it's going to drive me _insane. _We are leaving for Florida in 14 days (as of 8/2), it sucks. Ten days without a computer! Well, I have my laptop, but no internet! It is a conspiracy to kill me! Well, all is good. My dad got this DVD system for the car (we are _driving_). Two mini televisions that go on the backs of the seats and are hooked up to a DVD player. My first thoughts? 'Oh god, my sister is going to play all these Emilio Estevez movies... kill me _now._' I was wrong. I looked at the movies she wanted. There were two, of course they did have Emilio Estevez in them, but his roles weren't big. Tex and The Outsiders, I _love _those movies. I added Pirates of the Caribbean and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm sure you all _really _care about that, so I'm going to stop and start the story.

I went into my room and looked out the window. Dad came back a few minutes later and walked into the bathroom. He didn't have anything with him, I didn't think. Mom wasn't in the bathroom. I leaned against the wall and peeked in to see what he was doing. He put something in the cabinet and then got ready to leave. I quietly left and sat on my dad.

"I'm home," dad said leaning into our room. Nate was on the floor coloring and I was staring at the ceiling.

"What did you do?" I asked. He told me he did nothing. I wasn't going to believe that. I'd figure out later, tomorrow. Dad would be leaving in the morning and Miss Mathews wouldn't come right away. Mom was dead to the world when we woke up.

Dad took us out to eat. He took us to the Dairy Queen. I tried to get dad to let me get a banana split instead of a regular dinner. He didn't let me so I settled with a barbeque sandwich, a coke, and some fries. Nate ate a few fries and a milkshake. He didn't like much, milkshakes and fries when we went out and sometimes what mom and dad placed in front of him at the dinner table. Seeing him eat chicken is _hilarious_. He pulls it apart with his fingers and then inspects it before he puts it in his mouth. Mom hates it when he does that. It's almost as bad as when he eats his hard boiled eggs. He used to shove the whole thing in his mouth but mom got mad so now he pulls the white off of the yolk and throws away the yolk. He doesn't like yolk... how can you not like the yolk?

"Dad, what's wrong with mom?" I asked in between bites of my sandwich.

"Don't worry about it, she'll feel better soon."

"You know more, c'mon, dad tell us. _Please?_" I begged. He shook his head and I crossed my arms across my chest. I knew better than to start a tantrum in the middle of the Dairy Queen, but if I had too, then I would.

"Ronnie, we'll tell you when she feels better," he told me. I felt sort of satisfied. But, what if mom didn't get better? What would happen then? What, what would happen if, if she died? No, mom won't die.

We finished dinner and then went home. Mom was sitting on the couch in another pair of dad's pants and one of his tee-shirts. She was eating some crackers and watching television.

"Mom, don't you have your own clothes?" I asked her. She smiled and patted the spot on the couch next to her. I sat down.

"Did you hit somebody today?" she asked me. She sounded like she was going to be annoyed.

"Yeah," I said looking at me feet, "but only 'cause the guy was in fourth grade and made Nate do his homework for him," I said. I waited for her to get mad at me. Instead, she grabbed another cracker out of the box and sighed.

"We gonna tell them?" she asked looking at my dad. Tell us what? I'm dying here. I wanted to shout 'yes, tell us,' even though I had no idea what they were talking about.

"What ever you want," dad said and shrugged. I wanted to know.

"What?" I nearly shouted.

"Calm down, if you don't, I can't tell you," mom said. I sighed and shut my mouth. I wanted to know, really bad. I needed something to do. I was sitting on the couch and I couldn't talk. Mom and dad were exchanging glances. God, what did they have to tell us? I was going to pull out my hair. I looked at Nate, maybe if he said something, they would tell us.

"Mom," I whined. I just wanted them to say something. Mom gave me this look. She sprang to her feet, dropping her crackers and ran to the bathroom. If they weren't going to tell us, I was going to do my own investigation. I wouldn't wait until tomorrow morning. I would check that cabinet tonight, and I was going to find out.

_So the faster you review, the faster you find out. I am so evil for torturing you like this, aren't I? No, seriously, review, my fairies have taken a mini vacation, but I still have the need to update. What with being off the computer for 10 days._


	10. I Don't Want One

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- I Don't Want One

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers- Thanks, there were so many of you. YAY!

BlackLightningDX- I want those 10 Disney Bucks! Like I said, I'm not holding it against you. I understand, school…

Note- I know, I was mean. I dragged it out. I didn't drag out so much in this chapter. Well, a little bit but not too much.

Mom looked slightly better but she claimed to be tired. She went into the bedroom. I waited until I heard dad go into their bedroom and I went into the bathroom. I made sure the door was locked and I opened the cabinet. Aspirin, that was there before, these things were there before. God, what had dad put away before? I looked in the garbage pail, nothing. Whatever it was, they got rid of it. I opened the door and went into the kitchen. Mom and dad were still in their bedroom and Nate was in ours. I pet Chocolate as I peered into the kitchen garbage. Nothing, what did they get that they wanted to hide? I looked through the letters.

This one was strange. A realtor, why would we need a realtor? We weren't moving, or were we? Were we moving? I didn't want to move. We couldn't move. This wasn't fair. I liked it here, I liked living here. I didn't want to move, then I wouldn't live near Two-Bit and Miss Mathews wouldn't be my baby-sitter. I walked to my parents' room and knocked on the door.

"C'min," dad's voice said. I opened the door and crawled onto the bed. Dad put his arms around me.

"Did ya have a bad dream?" I shook my head. I showed him the letter.

"Are we moving?" I asked him.

"I'm gonna wake up your mom, you get Nate," he told me. I nodded and shook Nate. I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the bedroom. Mom was rubbing her eyes and dad told her what happened. She groaned.

"Are we moving?" I asked.

"Moving," Nate repeated. He looked scared. Mom sighed and stared at dad. Dad nodded.

"Guys, we're moving," she said.

"No fair," I yelled, "we don't get a say in this?" That wasn't fair.

"We aren't moving far. A few blocks down from here. We'll be closer to Uncle Darry. You and Nate can get your own rooms for a bit," dad said.

"Nuh-uh," I said. I shook my head and backed up.

"I don't want my own room. The house is fine, isn't it?"

"There isn't enough room. The house we got has three bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen."

"So, we don't need the extra bedroom," I protested.

"We aren't moving _that _far, besides, we'll have a bigger yard." I was getting used to the idea. A bigger yard, a separate kitchen and living room. It wasn't a bad idea.

"But why the extra bedroom?" I asked.

"Nate, Ronnie, you guys are gonna have a younger sibling," mom said. I wrinkled my nose. I didn't want a baby in the house.

"A baby," I said. I remembered when I was younger, about five; my friend's mom was going to have a baby. I asked mom where babies came from and she told me that she would tell me when I was older.

"So, where do babies come from anyway?"

"When you're older," mom told me.

"You said that last time I asked," I argued. She groaned.

"Can I just go to sleep?" she asked. She pulled the covers over her head and shooed us out. I climbed into bed with Nate. Chocolate was trying to get on the bed so I reached over and picked him up. He licked Nate's ear and Nate giggled.

"Nate, what do you think?" I asked him.

"I don't wanna move," he said softly, "I don't wanna baby." I rubbed his back as he began to cry. My brother only cried a few times. I gave him a hug and told him it would be okay. I was lying, I didn't know if it would be okay.

Dad woke us up in the morning. I didn't want to get up. Nate kept me up late last night. I didn't like to have him awake as he cried. I felt like a bad sister if I did that. I loved Nate a lot. I didn't want a baby, it would get the attention. I didn't want to lose the attention I got. Hopefully Uncle Two-Bit wouldn't love the baby more than me. I wouldn't like that at all.

Dad had a bowl of Lucky Charms on the table waiting for me. I didn't like Lucky Charms. Nate liked them a lot so he was enjoying himself. Ever since I punched that kid, he has been talking to me more. He says the occasional word to mom or dad. I mean word, like last night all he said was baby.

Dad stayed home from work because somebody was coming to see the house. The house looked sort of clean. It used to look cleaner when mom was feeling better. Dad told me she had morning sickness. He told me that you don't always get it in the morning. School was boring that day. I didn't tell anybody about the baby because I didn't really want it.

I came home and made sure everything was how I left it. I went into check on mom, I still wanted to make sure she was okay. This dumb baby was causing her a lot of pain. That's how the rest of the week went. I couldn't wait until Saturday. I would finally get to see Uncle Two-Bit again.

I slept late on Saturday. I don't know why. When I woke up, my uncles were already there.

"You did it again," I heard somebody say. I was half-asleep so I couldn't tell who it was.

"Congratulations," another voice said. I was glad Nate and I weren't the last ones to find out. I rolled off of my bed and walked out into the hall.

"Hey kiddo," dad said. The next thing I know, a bagel is flying towards me.

"Catch," Two-Bit said. I easily caught it and brought it back to the table.

"No food fights," mom warned.

"C'mon Jessi, we used to have them all the time," dad said.

"Yeah, but we have people checking out the house today. So, um, Two-Bit, would you mind taking the kids for the day?"

"It's not like I have other things to do. No, they aren't a problem for me." I gave him a hug. He picked me up.

"I was gettin' worried you'd miss Mickey this morning."


	11. Sold

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Sold

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

BlackLightningDX- Just 'cause I owe 'em to you, doesn't mean I can't want 'em…

XAmberX- Here's more… at 2:00 in the morning…

Thegirloutsider- Sisters… I have my own younger sister that I get to pick on. I don't, I love her… We think.

Note- What do you get when you leave your best friend and your sister alone with a DVD player? A _lot _of trouble… The part where Veronica says: I would've sent them so far away from this house; they would've ended up next door. If you don't get that, I can't really explain it. It means that they would've gone all the way around the world to get away. It might make more sense when you read it. My sister told me I was crazy when she read this. I told her I knew that I was. I kept laughing as I wrote the second half of the story.

Uncle Two-Bit dropped me on the couch and then turned the volume on the television loud. Mom smacked him over the head with a stack of papers. She was cleaning. She wanted the house to look nice for the people that were coming to check it out. Around eleven o'clock mom kicked us out. Dad stayed with her. Nate held onto my hand as we got into Steve's car. Two-Bit's brakes were out again. I don't see why he doesn't ask Steve to do it. Dad said that Steve was the best mechanic around.

"Two-Bit," I began, "did ya ever think that Steve could fix your brakes?" He turned around and looked at me.

"No," he said.

"Well, I bet he can. Dad said he was the best mechanic around. You really don't use your head," I told me. Uncle Steve laughed.

"I'll look at your brakes, and _maybe _I'll give you a discount." Uncle Steve was just as bad as Two-Bit behind the wheel. We went to Uncle Darry's house. I always found that place boring. There was nothing for me to do. I sat on the couch and watched television.

"You okay Ron? You haven't said much today," Uncle Steve asked. He never seemed to like me. He never seemed to like little kids.

"I don't want this stupid baby, they never ask us kids before they do these things," I said. I was kind of mad. I didn't want this stupid baby. It was going to ruin everything. Nate sat next to me and gave me a hug. I smiled, I knew he didn't want the baby either.

"Don't worry about it kid, it'll be fine," Two-Bit said coming to sit next to me. He messed up my hair and I stuck my tongue out at him. I fixed my hair and sighed.

"When can we go home?" I asked. I didn't like it here.

"Are you bored?" I nodded. We went to the movies but I wasn't enjoying myself. I wanted to go home and be with my mom and dad. I didn't want to move. I didn't care about the dumb baby, it could die, I wouldn't care. It was so boring on the way back that Uncle Steve asked the stupidest question.

"So, Ron, what's new?"

"Well, my mom's gonna have a baby, we're movin', oh and Nate said somethin' to mom and dad yesterday," I said.

"Natey talked?" Uncle Two-Bit asked. He picked up Nate.

"I think he deserves some ice cream." Nate grinned. We went to get ice cream. I got chocolate ice cream and of course Nate got vanilla. He's weird, everybody else likes chocolate. Except mom, but she was strange.

We went back to Darry's house, and he said that mom called. We were allowed to go home. I was the first one out the door. I couldn't wait to get home and make sure none of my stuff got touched. Mom was happy because they thought they might've sold the house. They wouldn't have if they were dumb. If they were dumb, they wouldn't have kept me away. I would've terrorized those poor people. I would've sent them so far away from this house; they would've ended up next door. Everything was where I left it. That's always a good thing.

Mom and dad didn't have anybody to take us out for the next people that came. I thought about what i could do, I thought about the horrible things I was going to do. I was told to stay in the bedroom or backyard while they came. When did I, Veronica Curtis, ever listen? I watched the family walk in. It was a mom, a dad, and a girl who looked younger than me. She was maybe five. I quietly walked behind her and then stood to the side. I tapped the opposite shoulder and watched her turn and look in that direction. I slid into my bedroom and grabbed a crayon out of the box and started to color.

"Mom," she said softly, "I think the house is haunted." I let out a light laugh. The house was haunted. That was great.

"Honestly, how many times do I need to tell you, there is no such thing as a ghost. The house is not haunted." Wow, this girl was already a nut-job. This would be hard, her parents wouldn't believe her. Maybe, if I put on a show, they would be terrified. I got up and threw the box of crayons against the wall outside the door. Nate stared at me with wide eyes. I grinned and told him to be quiet. I ran around the house screaming.

"They're comin' to get me! The ghosts are gonna get me!" I wanted to laugh so bad, the little girl was clinging to her mother's leg.

"Veronica Curtis," my mom said and she grabbed me by the waist.

"You say you're sorry because you know you just made that up."

"Sorry," I mumbled and walked back to the bedroom. I wasn't going to move out of this house. No way, I liked it too much here. Nate was looking at me. I could tell he had been laughing. I grinned. I couldn't hold my laughter any longer. I started to laugh and didn't stop.

The next morning I woke up to mom talking on the phone. Apparently, they had sold the house to the people who came early yesterday. I was mad, now I would have to leave.

"When are we moving?" I asked coming out of the bedroom.

"In a month," dad told me. He was standing over the stove making eggs. I looked in the pan to see purple scrambled eggs.

"When was food coloring a food group?"


	12. Starting To Feel Like Home

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Starting To Feel Like Home

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Hideeho135- Glad you like it

XAmberX- I made somebody laugh!

Thegirloutsider- Yay! Thank you so much…

Note- Has anybody here tried jelly on their eggs? I'm just curious; I always thought that was tuff. I would've tried it, but we didn't have any eggs and when we have eggs it always seems that we don't have jelly. We mainly have _granola bars_… (They're okay, but after a while it's just _blah_)

_School sucks, it's taking away my reviewers... :'(_

Dad laughed and handed me a plate of eggs. I pulled out the jelly. I had actually taken a liking to the stuff. It was good. The rest of the month was boring. All of our stuff was packed away into boxes. Mom was feeling a little better. She still was puking and sleeping a lot. She hardy did anything. Occasionally she went to work. Her boss let her work whatever days she wanted too. She just had to work at least 15 hours a week, other wise she wouldn't get paid.

I didn't like the house. It wasn't my home. It didn't have the memories the old one did. The door frame didn't have the markings from our height over the years and other memories. It was empty and boring. It didn't seem to have life at all. The room Nate and I were sharing was definitely a little bit bigger than our old room, but I didn't care. It was boring. It didn't have the crayon marks on the walls from when Nate and I were younger. It had nothing.

I sat in the front yard as I watched the stuff being moved into the house. They finally told me I could go into my bedroom. I had stuff do. I had to put clothes in the closet and drawers. Nate was already working on that. I took the bag I had and pulled out the box of crayons. It was time to make this place more like home.

I spent the whole afternoon drawing pictures on the wall. It was a plain white wall without a window, before I started. Nate put away all the clothes and then joined me. He drew the pictures and I colored them. We spent all day in the room. We had kept the door locked and didn't come out for lunch. We only came out for dinner. Mom and dad hadn't seen our artwork yet.

When they came into the room, it was dark and the lights were off. They gave us our good-night kisses and then left. They didn't notice. We were still alive. The next morning I woke up early and I woke up Nate. I knew that mom would be really mad about it. I was going to keep them from seeing it as long as I could.

"Ronnie, I _need _to put these blinds up in your room. Could you _please _move?" mom asked. I was standing in front of my bedroom door.

"No, because, um, Nate is getting changed," I lied.

"I changed his diapers, move," she demanded. Dad came over and lifted me to the side. I laughed out of fear. My mom walked into the bedroom and I peeked in through the door. Her attention went to the wall.

"VERONICA LYNN CURTIS!" she shouted. I walked in, looking at the ground.

"Yeah," I answered.

"What the hell did you do?" Her eyes were attached to the wall. Dad came in and his jaw dropped. Our wall was covered with monkeys and dogs and people and flowers and other things.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"You better be," mom said. I could hear her getting angry.

"C'mon mom, getting angry isn't so good for the baby." If the baby was going to get me out of trouble, I would learn to like it. She sighed, walked out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"You are in there for the rest of the day. I'll bring your lunch and dinner," she shouted. I stared at dad hoping he could get me out of this. He just walked out.

"But, but I didn't do it all. Nate did some. I can't draw monkeys that good," I pleaded.

"Veronica, shut it, you are in there for the rest of the day. Talking isn't going to help you either!" Mom was mad. I felt really bad, but they dragged me out of my home and I hadn't wanted to go. I would've gone to Uncle Two-Bit's house, by sneaking out the window. The only problem was that the window was too high up and not near the bed. I wanted to borrow something from him. Something called a switchblade, so I could make markings on my door frame.

Since I couldn't go out, I had to use what I had. I looked for something that would work. I was making this place feel more like home. I don't care if somebody got killed in the process. I have a grin and I can get away with murder. Mom had taken my crayons away, so I couldn't draw them on. I waited for Nate to come in.

"Hey Nate," I said when he finally walked in. He waved. He must've felt bad about me getting blamed for the whole coloring thing.

"Can you do me a favor? Quietly go into the kitchen and get me the knife mom uses for the cake." He nodded and went out into the kitchen. I didn't need to add quietly. He came back a few seconds later with a grin on. He gave me the knife. I started to saw marking into the door frame while he looked amused. After I was done I handed him the knife. He went back into the kitchen to put it away.

Mom and dad came in that night to give us a kiss. I wondered why I didn't get a piece of cake. Then I realized I was still in trouble. I had fun entertaining myself. I looked at the door frame and admired the nice markings in it. They were kind of small, so nobody would notice them. Yeah, this place was starting to feel a little bit like home, thanks to me.


	13. Lost And It's My Fault

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Lost and It's My Fault

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Thegirloutsider- Yeah, she's kind of mean… And Ronnie was protecting Nate; she didn't want him in trouble too.

XAmberX- Nah, he's around, _somewhere_. I'm too young for a permit. Two years, and then, you don't _want _to be on the road. My mom told me that when I get it, she's turning in her license. My brother has his; sadly, he failed his road test… He's taking it again September 22.

Note- I am saved! From hell week that is. Two reasons: 1. I'm a lazy ass and I'd rather write stories than play soccer… 2. I found out a girl I might have to kill is on the team. Yeah, basically I stopped playing school soccer. My punishment? NOTHING… I'm doing too much band stuff to be bothered with soccer, I write, and I play on a different team. Now, let me ask you, would you rather me write or play soccer? 'Sides, school **SUCKS**! It's taking away my reviewers, especially those in Florida… I'll be there soon! Yeah, which means you won't have me update for 10 days. Maybe I'll finish by then. Oh, and like i said. If you want to annoy me please IM me gcbabe1891 (AIM). I really need some people to talk too. This chapter is sad... but I had to do it, 'cause I am mean and heartless.

A few more months went by. They never found out about the markings. In a way, I felt guilty about them. I wanted my parents to see them, so I would get in trouble. It was the oddest thing in the world. Suddenly, my Uncles were over and mom and dad went out. I wanted to know what was going on, but nobody seemed to know.

That is, until somebody said mom was having the baby. I groaned, it was too soon for the baby. I had asked my friend's mom about it, she said it took nine months. I had looked at my calendar; it would only by four months from when mom told me. I wondered how long it really had been. I know she told me as soon as she found out.

I saw dad the next day. He looked upset and the adults had shooed me out of the room. I could here them talking in low adult voices. It was enough to make me want to find out. I needed to find out. We saw mom in the next few days. She looked upset. I could see where tears had run down her cheeks. What was going on?

"What's going on?" I shouted. I had to find out. It was going to kill me. Mom looked at me, then at dad.

"You didn't tell them?" she asked. Dad shook his head.

"Tell us what?" I asked. I was going to die if they didn't say anything.

"Honey," mom said in a voice I hadn't heard her use in a long time. She sat up in the hospital bed. I walked over to her and she put her arms around me. She motioned for Nate, he walked over and she hugged him as well.

"Guys," her voice cracked, "I, I lost the baby." What did that mean?

"How can you 'lose the baby?'" I asked. How do you lose a baby in the hospital?

"S, something happened. The baby was born too soon." This still wasn't making sense. I was born early. She didn't lose me.

"Huh?" Nate said. Leave it to Nate to sum it all up in one word.

"Kids, the baby didn't survive," dad said. He walked over to us and joined us in the hug. My baby sibling was dead? I was just getting used to the idea.

"It was a, a b, boy," mom said with difficulty, "n, not even th, three hours old." More tears rolled down her cheeks. I gave her a tight hug.

I learned from the doctors that she would be having difficulty with this. The baby had spent six months inside of her and she felt attached to it. I wanted to know why it had too be born early. It wasn't fair, my mom was a good mom. She never hit us or anything. She yelled at us, but I shouldn't have done what I did. I really wanted another younger brother. I wanted somebody for Nate to have to take care of, the way I took care of Nate.

"What was his name?" I asked. I looked at my feet. It had been almost three weeks since the baby died and nobody spoke of it a lot. Mom spent her days in the bedroom; she was even fired from her job. She looked different. She looked like she hadn't slept in years and she lost a significant amount of weight. I heard my mom whimper. She was acting like a little kid.

"W, what d, did I ever do?" she wailed. This was the first time I was speaking to her about it since that night at the hospital. I found out his name was Jonathan, Jonathan Glenn Curtis. I felt really bad about hating him before I knew him. Now I would _never_ know him.

"Mama, I'm sorry I was mean to Johnny before I knew him. I know it was wrong. I don't like it. What do I do?" She stared at me, and then blinked a few times. She rolled onto her stomach and started to cry some more. I stood in the same spot, paralyzed with guilt. Was I the cause of his death? Did he think I hated him? Was that why he died? 'Now look at me,' I thought, 'I'm making my mother cry uncontrollably.' I felt really bad.

The bedroom door opened and somebody walked in. I noticed it had gotten late, it was dark. When did that happen? I was being picked up off the floor and placed in my bed. Did I fall asleep? I remember feeling Nate cuddle up close to me. He whispered something about a nightmare. I was living my own. I was the cause of my baby brother's death. I didn't open my eyes. I just kept thinking and hardly sleeping.

I was so guilty I hardly ate, I wanted to die. I was so mean too little Jonathan, I had killed him. He had lost all will to live. It was my fault. He should be here, not me. I scribbled out a little note saying that I was going out for a little and that nobody should look for me. I was planning on going to my friend's house. I doubt she would know what to do, she had a baby sister. She didn't kill her baby sister. I didn't think my grin would come in handy now. I felt so bad, I just couldn't smile.

I knocked on the door; her mom told me she went out with her dad. I couldn't help myself so I wailed the whole story to her mom. Her mom gave me a hug and tried to tell me that it would be okay, and I didn't do anything. It was a lie, just like I said I hated Johnny. I never hated him, I couldn't hate him. He would've made my mom so happy, I took away her happiness. Now I felt guiltier than before. I killed my brother and made my mom sad. What was I going to do?


	14. Uneven

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Uneven

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers- -Gasp- What's happening to all of you? Either you dropped dead, decided not to review or that evil school decided to take you away from me. This reminds me, I must go burn down all the schools in the country so you guys can read and review my stories. Normally I wait for everybody, but since vacation is coming for me soon… I want to get this out. I have the story done. Its 20 chapters

Punkforever- I figured maybe some people would guess it. Oh, and go ahead, change your penname on me, make me confused

Note- The real important note shall be on the bottom! I tricked you all. So here's the story. I meeting my angry mob now, we need to go burn down a few million schools.

My best friend's mom held me tightly on their front porch. She was telling me everything was going to be okay. She told me it wasn't my fault that things happen for a reason. She led me back inside and made me a glass of chocolate milk. She was my second mother, and she knew what I liked. She let me sit on the couch for a while. She called my dad, I heard her talking. I knew it was my dad, mom wouldn't answer the phone and neither would Nate. It could be my uncles, if they decided to stop by.

"Ronnie, dear, you dad is coming to pick you up. You had your family worried sick." Her voice was soft and calm, I almost wanted to believe.

"He's just saying that. I killed him, I killed my little baby brother. He didn't even get to see anything. They all hate me, but they don't want to say it to my face." I was ready to cry again.

"Shush, Ronnie, that's not true. They love you very much." I didn't want to believe her. I couldn't, I just couldn't believe her. I felt like I killed him so strongly. I think I really did kill him. I was sort of aware when dad came to pick me up. He gave me a big hug.

"Ronnie, baby, you scared us so much," he told me. I backed away from him. Baby, he called me baby. I wasn't a baby. No, I was a baby killer.

"I'm _not _a baby!" I shouted at him.

"No, I'm sorry, you are a big girl. You're seven." He didn't understand. Nobody did. They all tried to tell me it would be okay. It wasn't going to be okay.

"No, no, no, _no_, you don't _understand_," I whined, "I _killed _him. It's _my _fault he's dead. I'm not a baby, I'm a baby _killer_!" He picked me up, thanked my friend's mom and walked out to the car. I don't remember him putting my seatbelt on, or pulling away from my friend's house. I hardly remember him carrying me through the door. I was crying and yelling. I was a baby killer. I killed their son. Didn't they see?

Then, a thought hit me. Was this why Nate stayed quiet? Not so he didn't kill babies, but so he never felt guilty. You couldn't feel guilty if you didn't say anything. It was going to be hard, but I was going to be like Nate. I wasn't going to talk. I was going to hang around Nate; I didn't want another dead brother. I wanted to spend all of my time with him.

I must've startled dad when I stopped yelling and crying. He put me down on my bed and looked at me. I guess he thought I fell asleep. I was kind of tired; sleep didn't seem like a bad idea. But, but where was Nate? I got up and looked for him everywhere. I eventually found him and wrapped my arms around him. I wasn't going to let go. I was never letting go. I love my brother; I didn't want to lose him.

At night, Nate had to go to the bathroom and I didn't want to leave him. I waited outside the bathroom door for him. I counted the seconds, I don't know why. I heard Nate start to turn the door knob. Wait, it hadn't been an even amount of minutes! It had only been one minute and thirty-seven seconds. I grabbed the door knob and held it there until I got to two minutes. I released the door knob and grabbed his hand. I stared at him and gave him a weak grin. I wondered if he knew.

I woke up early the next morning, everybody was still asleep. I don't know why I woke up. I moved closer to Nate and grabbed his hand. I must've fallen asleep because Nate woke me up. He dragged me to the bathroom, to see if I had to go. He must've guessed I wasn't talking. I was glad he was taking care of me. I stayed in the bathroom for four minutes. It was a nice even number. I walked out and leaned against the wall. I could hear mom and dad talking.

"Jessica, she thinks she killed him. _You _need to tell her that she didn't." My mom never answered, or I never bothered to hear. I was being pulled into my room by Nate. He sat on the bed and I stared at him.

"Talk," he commanded. I shook my head twice. Two was a nice even number. My thoughts started to wander. My family wasn't an even number, was it? Let's see, there's Uncle Darry, Pony, Steve, mom, dad, Nate, and me. No, that was seven! It wasn't even. If, if I hadn't killed Johnny, it would've been an even number. Why did I do that? Why did I kill him? Now our family wasn't a nice even number. Now it was all wrong.

I leaned onto my pillow until I heard my dad calling me. Ronnie, it had two syllables. It was nice and even. Nate was only one. That bothered me. Dad was only one, but daddy was two. The same with mom and mommy. I waited until dad called me twice. Four syllables, two each time. I liked the way he said my name. It sounded short and even. Long things, long and uneven bugged me. Chocolate was even if you pronounced it 'chalk-let' if it was pronounced 'chalk-oh-let' it wasn't. That was three syllables. Very, very annoying. I didn't have to worry about saying these things, but I would always hear them. I would always hear them.

I walked into the kitchen. Dad put some eggs in front of me. He gave me the thing of jelly and a glass of 'chalk-let' milk. I didn't look at him the whole time. I stared at the table.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I shrugged. I made sure both of my shoulders went up and down at the same time. That never bothered me before. I used to like it when one arm went up before the other. Now, I wanted things perfect. I wanted them perfect. When things are perfect, you can't kill anybody.

Note- OCD Resources: Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser, Yahoo! Health, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder


	15. School and The Queen of Evenness

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- School and the Queen of Evenness

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

XAmberX- Here's some more!

Punkforever- Ouch, sounds like something my sister would do

Anybody wanna join my mob and torch some schools with me? It'll be fun!

Note- Do you know how much you can learn by looking at somebody's iPod? I learned a lot about my best friend's taste in music. She doesn't care about styles. She has songs ranging from "The Clincher" by Chevelle to "Ass Like That" by Enimem. I really never thought she was into music like Chevelle. She always plays the hip-hop and rap music. So, you learn a lot about looking at somebody's iPod. I know a lot about her, so we aren't strangers. It's just weird, but, we never let music take control of our friendship. I put up with her hip-hop and rap and she put up with my obsession with Good Charlotte and Green Day.

I thought, maybe over the weekend, maybe over Thanksgiving break, things would get better. I had school on Monday, which would prove to be the test. How was I going to get through school? There were a lot of little kids there. Little kids that I could kill if I said the wrong thing. They would lose their will to live. It would be my fault. I would kill again. I didn't want to.

I woke up Monday and went to the bathroom. I spent my four minutes in there as usual. I made sure everything was even. All four toothbrushes were straight on the rack. I opened the door and walked into the living room. I grabbed my shoes and tied them. Each bow had to be the same size as the other one. If it was just a little off, I pulled out both bows and fixed them. Sometimes it took three tries, and then I would pull it out, that was an uneven number.

"Ronnie, you're going to be late," Miss Mathews called. Nate was pulling on my hand, he liked school. He started to like it more after I hit that kid. I was staring at the clock. As soon as it hit 8:30 I would go out. 8:29, 8:30, I grabbed my bag and headed out to the car. I counted the steps I took. 14, plus the step I would take to get into the car. That would be 15, 15 is uneven. I took a step back and then took a large step into the car. Miss Mathews stared at me. I waved and noticed my fingernails. They were uneven from being chewed. I would fix that later.

We pulled up at the school around 8:35, five minutes late. I waited an extra minute, holding Nate back. I couldn't be five minutes late, no, six was better. Six was even. I sat at my desk and got out my scissors. I started to cut my nails, but it was hard. The scissors weren't sharp enough. I had made my one thumb bloody from trying to cut. _One, one, one_, it echoed in my head. Uneven, I thought. I worked on making the other one bleed.

"Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie," I heard somebody say. I was busy making things even, I couldn't be bothered. My two pencils were different lengths. I was at the pencil sharpener, I was making them even. My thumbs were a dark red, from the semi-dry blood.

"Ronnie," the same caring voice said. The teacher grabbed my thumbs.

"What happened?" she asked. I shrugged. I wasn't talking.

"Veronica Curtis, you've always spoken out of turn. Now, you expect me to believe you? Who did this?" I pulled my thumbs out of her hands and pointed at me. She gasped and led me out of the classroom. I made this weird noise and extended my hand to Nate. He looked up and walked over to us. I grabbed his hand and held on.

"You did this to yourself?" I nodded.

"Why?" she asked, pressing further than I wanted to go. I started to feel really bad and shook. Nate squeezed my hand. It was his way of saying 'be strong'. I don't think he knew about my evenness. Nobody knew, just me. Nobody understood why I spent a minute in the bathroom doing nothing, or why I wouldn't talk. There were too many words that were uneven. I couldn't say them.

We got home and mom was still in bed. That was bothering me. Yeah, good, I've started to care. No, I haven't. There were only _three _of us eating dinner. You know what that is, don't you? It's _uneven_. Sometimes, I tried to get Chocolate to sit in the chair. He didn't want to stay in it.

"Ronnie, honey, what are you doing to your chicken?" dad asked me at dinner that night. I was pulling it in half, and then pulling those halves in half, and so on. I shrugged and put a piece in my mouth. I chewed it 20 times, way past the point of chewing. It had become a paste in my mouth and you didn't _need _to chew it. I swallowed and then took two sips of my water.

"So, Ronnie, just because Nate talks once-in-awhile, you've decided to become the silent one. I know you can't do that for long." I just stared at him. Did he want to bet? I could do it _forever_. I noticed this weird mark on his nose. It looked like teeth marks. Did a vampire bite him? I wouldn't find out. I wasn't about to ask him. If I did, that meant I had to talk to him, I wasn't talking to anybody.

I was lying on my back that night. I normally lay on my stomach, but my stomach was worn out from all those years. The seven _uneven _years. I don't know why that bugged me. I really tried to stop. I tried to only spend three minutes in the bathroom, but my body didn't want to turn that door knob. I tried to kiss my dad good-night only once, but my body automatically gave him a second kiss and on the other cheek. I wanted somebody to pick me up and take me into my mom's room, maybe if I went in there, things wouldn't need to be even. I couldn't get my body to walk there. It was out of my normal routine. Wake up, go to the bathroom, stay in there for four minutes, eat the eggs, chew 20 times, take two sips of my drink at a time, get to the car at 8:30, be six minutes late, sharpen my pencils to the same size, do school, come home, do my homework, if it was uneven: do Nate's, eat dinner, chew 20 times, take two sips of my drink at a time, eat my dessert, go to the bathroom for four minutes, go to my room, hold Nate's hands, blink my eyes twice, let go of Nate's hands, rub my eyes four times, hold his hands again, and then close my eyes. I needed everything to be that way, and my mom just didn't fit into my schedule.

I rubbed my eyes and then my hands found Nate's. I was asleep by the time I could count to ten. I never could remember if I feel asleep on an even number. I hoped I did, it would bother me if I didn't.


	16. Realized

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Realized

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

XAmberX- Yeah,let'sdo the ones where school's started already, then we'll do yours.The ones 'round here don't start 'til September… I'm not starting until the 7th…

Punkforever- Next chapter is here at, once again, 2 a.m.

Note- I'm so excited... I finally got my Green Day c.d. It's an old one, "International Superhits!" but, I was dying to get it. My friend is trying to buy me caffeine pills, which would end well. The plus side would be that I could keep writing well into the night and not get tired. I wouldn't have to drink all those sodas to get a high. The negative side would be my grouchiness. I had to change my screen name due to some privacy issues dealing with a certain family member… my new one is xshellzx1891x (it's actually an older one but I need to use it now)

"Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie," somebody called while shaking me. 'Ugh,' I thought, 'call me one more time.' The person sighed and left the room. 'No,' my mind shouted, 'you _need _to call me!' I rolled out of my bed and made sure my feet landed at the same time. I walked out of the room using an equal number of steps. 'Everything has to be even, it just has to,' I thought. Even is perfect and nobody can die when things are perfect. I hated death. It's even worse when you are the cause of death. I killed my baby brother. I was supposed to protect him and I killed him.

"Well, good morning sleepy head," Uncle Steve said. Why was he here? I looked at Nate, maybe he knew. He just shrugged. Was it a weekend? Oh, it was. My weekends started to run into my weeks and I got confused.

"Are you not talking?" I wanted to talk. I didn't want to kill anybody else. Words were uneven, not perfect. I wanted perfect, no, I _needed _perfect. I shook my head.

"Are you trying to be like your brother?" No, I wasn't trying to be him! I had my own reasons. I shook my head again. You know what? This is annoying. A few words won't kill anybody. Maybe that's not true. The words "I didn't care about the dumb baby, it could die, I wouldn't care," killed my baby brother.

"I, I don't wanna kill anybody else," I whispered. It was the truth. I wondered if they knew I killed him. I wondered if they hated me.

"You killed somebody?" Two-Bit asked looking at us from the couch. They were so confused. Maybe they were scared. I hoped that once I told them, they would just leave. They would leave me alone so I couldn't kill them. Maybe I should leave.

"I, I killed my brother," I said. I stared at my feet. Suddenly, the hole in my sock became very interesting.

"You didn't kill him, he's right here," Two-Bit said. He pointed to Nate.

"Not him," I whined, "Jonathon." I felt my ears get hot. I must've been really red. Everybody looked confused. I didn't want to explain. I just walked into my room and buried my face in my pillow. I sobbed.

"I _killed _him," I screamed. I repeated it over and over again.

"I, I d, didn't mean to," I cried. I heard somebody walking over to my bed. I was pulled into their lap and they started to rub my back. I rested my head in the person's stomach.

"Honey, you did _not _kill him. I don't blame you, c'mon, be a big girl. You're a tough girl, and you didn't kill anybody." Was that mom? No, mom was mad at me. She hated me, she hated me for killing Jonathan. I looked up and wiped my tears off of my cheeks. It _was _mom. But, why was she here?

"Mom," I said.

"Yeah, shush, baby, it's not your fault." Didn't she understand? I _killed _him. I made him not want to live. It was _my _fault. It was, it was! She held me tightly, shushing me, and rubbing my back. I kept crying, but she only held me tighter. I wanted her to go away before I killed her too.

I don't remember much after that. I woke up, under my sheets. I was still in my clothes. I felt good, like I had slept for a long, long time. I didn't really feel guilty. Well, I felt guilty, but not as guilty. Hearing my mom say it over and over, I started to believe her. I looked over to my side. My mom was sleeping next to me. She needed the sleep. I put the blanket over her and walked out. I didn't count! I was debating whether I would go back or not, but somebody grabbed my wrist. There was Nate. I shoved him away, gently, and then went back to count. I couldn't stop it. He grabbed my wrist again.

"Huh?" I asked confused. He brought me over to the table and pushed me into the chair. In front of me was a piece of chocolate cake. I looked at the clock. 8:15, I was going to be later than I normally was. I shoveled the cake in and ran back to my bedroom. Last time I was late, the teacher told me not to be late again. If I was, she was going to call my parents. I checked the mirror, well, I was fully dressed. I would be so embarrassed to walk into class missing something. I finished tying my shoes as Miss Mathews honked the car horn. I grabbed Nate's hand and ran out with him.

"Good morning," she said smiling. I returned the smile; I was in a good mood. My mom was getting some sleep, I felt less guilty about Jonathan, and I was going to be on time. Things were looking up for today. It was nice out and Christmas wasn't too far away. I loved Christmas, but Jonathan would never be able to experience a Christmas. Great, now the guilt came flooding back. I put my head in my hands and started to cry, I hoped nobody would notice. Miss Mathews never said anything and I doubted Nate would.

We pulled up to the school and I quickly wipe my eyes. I wiped my nose on my shirt sleeve, I knew that was gross but I didn't have any tissues. I opened the door and stepped out. I saw the kids leaving the playground and going into the school. I could still be on time! I grabbed Nate's hand and pulled him out of the car. I ran into the building. I smiled at the teacher because I was on time. She gave me a warm smile back.

School was boring. We weren't bothered by anybody so nothing was interesting. Miss Mathews didn't drive us home. Mom was there. She smiled at me as I opened the car door.

"Thanks," she said to me. What did I do for her? She helped me; I didn't do anything for her. I don't think I did anything.


	17. Christmas!

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Christmas!

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Punkforever- Thanks and here's more, at a normal time!

XAmberX- What, did you think I was stupid? Of course I like Green Day! I only have American Idiot and International Superhits because I am poor… My American Idiot is burned 'cause my parents would NEVER let me get something with a Parental Advisory label on it. I don't have any posters, just a picture from the news paper of Billie Joe and his guitar. I happen to have a Good Charlotte poster though. I was going to go to the Green Day concert, but the closest was in Giant Stadium and my parents said they were NOT taking me to Jersey for a concert. I saw GC's The Young and The Hopeless though. But, I am OBSESSED with Good Charlotte (in case you haven't figured it out yet)

babygurl33- You caught up! Yeah! Everybody loves Nate and I don't know why…

Note- Ah, I mentioned granola bars! I just _had _to. I swear, those fairies went away, and they brought back friends! I am using granola bars to fight them off. Oh, the powers of the granola bar!

"Thanks for what?" I asked her. I was really confused.

"I needed somebody to cry with, somebody to get me away from my nothingness," she told me. Now I was _just_ a _little_ more confused. It wasn't going to bother me. I smiled at her and she waited for Nate to get in the car.

"Do your homework, and I have chocolate cake on the counter," she said when she opened the front door. The house looked _clean_. She must've done a lot. The beds were made and other things were straightened up. The chocolate cake was fresh and I'm pretty sure that she went grocery shopping. We had other food in the house. Yeah, stuff besides granola bars.

I did my homework, ate my cake and went into my room. I noticed something on my bed. It was a notebook, a pen, and a note.

_'Sometimes it just helps to write' _it said. It was my mom's handwriting. I laughed. 'Yeah, writing will help,' I thought. I put the book on the floor and kicked it under my bed. I wasn't going to write about how I killed my brother. 'No,' I thought, 'I didn't, I swear I didn't.' Why did I keep thinking I did? I _know _I didn't. They all told me I didn't.

"Wake up, wake up," I screamed a little hyper. A few weeks had gone by and it was now Christmas morning. I was shaking my mom and screaming. I wanted to see what I got. We had a rule, we weren't allowed into the living room until everybody was up. Nate was standing half asleep next to me. I hardly slept last night, I was too excited.

"C'mon, wake up," I said shaking my mom harder. She swatted me away and groaned.

"What time is it?" she groaned. I looked at the clock. It was four.

"Uh, four," I said quietly. She groaned again.

"Did ya ever think that most people sleep?" she asked me. No, I never thought of that.

"C'mon, get up. I'll wake up dad. I wanna go see," I told her. I walked around the bed and shook my dad a bit. Nate followed me. Mom got out of bed and went into the bathroom. I climbed onto the bed to wake up dad. He slept like there was no tomorrow.

"I'm up, don't kill anyone," dad mumbled. He didn't just say that. Everybody thought I was over the whole killing my brother thing, but I wasn't. I didn't think I would ever be. I always needed Nate with me. I dragged him everywhere. I guess he was like my security blanket; I needed him to hang onto. I wasn't going to lose him, ever.

Mom came back in from the shower and dad went into the bathroom. I wondered what I got. When dad came back in, I nearly pushed him over to get into the living room. I tripped over something. Chocolate was munching away on a bone. I see he had a good Christmas. I picked myself up and finished running towards our tree.

Our tree wasn't anything special. It was a small tree that was slightly decorated, with presents underneath it. I gasped. The presents, there were presents near our tree. I had been dragging Nate and he let out a little gasp as well. I sat down and started to go through the presents. I picked out the ones that said 'Ronnie' on them and handed the 'Nate' ones to him.

I tore through the presents. I got quite a bit of stuff. We were going over Uncle Darry's later on. Everybody was going to be there, all of my uncles. I couldn't wait. I hadn't seen them in a week. That was a pretty long time. I got dressed, said bye to Chocolate and headed into the car. Mom went out and got me.

"Hey, you might wanna eat breakfast and wait for a few hours. It is only 5 in the morning." I sighed and went into the kitchen. Mom was making breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, jelly and chocolate milk.

"Hey, where's the cake?" I asked looking around.

"We're bringing two over later," mom told me. I ate my breakfast and got ready to go.

We finally left around 9. I ran up the steps, dragging Nate, and opened the door.

"We're here," I called. I was greeted with a bunch of 'hey's and went to sit down. Nate followed me, mainly because he had no choice. Mom came in with dad; they were each holding a cake. They put them down on the table and greeted everybody with hugs. I didn't care, I wanted my presents.

I got some stuff, but my favorite was the Mickey Mouse coloring book. I loved to color and I loved Mickey Mouse. (I'll give you one guess who got it for me.) I didn't have any crayons or I would've started to color right there. It was really boring since I couldn't color. It was nice out, so my uncles went to play football. I sat outside and watched them. I wondered when I would be allowed to play with them. They thought I was too small. I wasn't too small.

It was real late by the time we had to go home. I fell asleep in the car and dad carried me in. I kept thinking about how I ruined Jonathan's Christmas. He never got a Christmas; it was my entire fault too. I wondered how mom was doing. She seemed fine. I got out of my bed and walked into their room.

"Ma," I said walking next to her.

"What is it Ronnie?" she asked me.

"Are you okay? Are you missin' Jonathan?" I asked her.

"I'm fine baby, don't worry. I think you need some sleep." I wondered if she had been crying. Her voice sounded funny, she sounded kind of sad. I was sad too, I wondered if everybody else was also sad. I didn't feel to well. I wanted to cry, but I didn't want to. It was this weird feeling.

"I can't sleep, I miss him," I whispered to her. She moved over and patted the bed next to her.

"C'mon up," she said.

"Won't Nate get scared?" I asked her. She sighed and told me to go get Nate. He was half asleep when I shoved him onto the bed. I slept sandwiched between Nate and mom.


	18. New Year's Eve

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- New Years Eve

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers- I don't have my e-mails and reviews… this isn't my computer and I snuck on. Hope you enjoy! It's about 12:30 'cause I spent the day with Red and Kiwi arguing with Kiwi: Green Day Vs. Coldplay. And after Green Day finished, she took out the c.d. and I put in my Good Charlotte c.d. and told her if she took it out, I'd slap her. Kiwi got slapped.

Note- I must thank somebody extra special. My muse, who likes to visit in the wee hours of the morning, Has she no sense?

_I just happen to like bothering you. _

My muse doesn't have a name. I call her muse and you can call her charmedgurl1891's muse.

_Maybe I do have a name... maybe my name is Granola Bar, or GB for short._

I have no idea, but I shall continue to call her muse and you shall continue to call her charmedgurl1891's muse. I do not give into her wishes and call her Granola Bar or GB. So, my kind reviewers please say hello to my muse!

_Hello kind reviewers_.

Okay, now she can leave.

_Oh, thank you, you are **finally **letting me go!_

She is a nocturnal muse. Obviously, giving me story ideas at 2 or 3 in the morning.

_I told you, I like to be **annoying**. Something you are quite good at! _

This is, sadly, my third to last chapter. I decided to go with Ronnie and make this story have an even amount of chapters, twenty.

I woke up late the next morning. So did everybody else. I could've slept a lot longer, except my mom got off the bed and it creaked. I was a light sleeper sometimes and I guess that was one of those times. I woke Nate up; I had to drag him everywhere. I couldn't let him alone, except when he went to the bathroom. I stood outside the door and waited for him. I made sure he spent an even amount of time in there.

After crying with mom that day, I felt a little less guilty. I knew I never would completely get over it. A part of me will always feel guilty. Nate and I walked into the kitchen. Mom was making us two bowls of cereal. She set down a bowl of Frosted Flakes in chocolate milk in front of me and Lucky Charms in front of Nate. I smiled at her.

Mom went back into her bedroom. She came out a few minutes later, followed by dad. I wondered if I would ever have another sibling again. Part of me didn't want another one. I loved Nate and I didn't think I could ever love somebody else like I love him.

We had everybody over for New Year's Eve. Uncle Steve brought over his new girlfriend. I don't think I like her. She laughed at everything with a high pitched giggle, said words I was told not to say, she wore a lot of make up, and acted like I was a baby.

"Mom, can I stay up this year?" I asked my mom. I wanted to stay up with everybody. I didn't like to be in bed when everybody else was still up.

"Aw, how cute, Ronnie wants to stay up with the grown ups," Steve's girlfriend said in this weird voice. I narrowed my eyes and I wanted to hit her. My mom came over to me.

"You can try," mom told me. She pushed my hair out of my face and gave me a kiss. When mom went away I stuck my tongue out at Steve's girlfriend. I didn't like her, I don't even remember her name. I remember falling asleep before midnight, and then waking up. Everybody else was asleep. Mom and dad were in their room, Nate was next to me on the couch, Steve and his girlfriend were in our room, Darry and Pony were in, um, _the other_ room, and Two-Bit was on our floor.

I woke Nate up, quietly. I dragged him into the kitchen where I looked through the draws. I eventually found what I was looking for, a pair of scissors. I dragged Nate into our room and cut of that lady's hair. I kept my laughter inside and washed the scissors. They were dirty and they needed to be cleaned. I dried them and put them away. I went back on the couch with Nate and fell asleep.

We were woken up about an hour later, by a shriek. Everybody rushed to the room it came from, my room. I went just as fast as everybody else, I didn't want to look suspicious.

"It was her, I swear, the ungrateful little," and then she called me a bad word. Mom looked at me. My eyes probably said 'yeah, I did it,' but I mouthed 'no'. Mom walked over to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't think my kids did it," she said, "they were fast asleep when we went to bed, and woke up when you screamed." Good ol' mom, she knew what to say to get me out of trouble. When she wanted to say it.

"Yeah, I was with them all night," Two-Bit added. At least, she didn't know Two-Bit could sleep through a nuclear war.

"I can't believe you would blame something on two seven year olds," Steve said. He looked at her, I think he was upset. That was the first time I think I actually felt like he _really _cared about us. The lady huffed, grabbed her bag and shoes. She stood by the front door.

"Fine, Steve, care more about your bratty neice than you care about me. I don't need you anyway," she shouted. She slammed the door shut.

"Ronnie, I can't believe you would do something like that," my mom said. I had guessed she'd known for sure. If she didn't, she would've accused me with that lady. I let out a little giggle.

"I didn't like her. How'd you know I did it?" I asked. I already knew, she was my mom and moms knew these types of things.

"Well, hair doesn't cut itself and I could tell you didn't like her," mom answered. I loved her, she knew me really well. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her. I let go and mom went into the kitchen to make breakfast, she had gotten better at cooking. When I was five, almost every thing came out burnt.


	19. 5 Months, In A Quick View

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- 5 Months, In A Quick View

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

babygurl33- Updated

XAmberX- Cool, I'm still only have 2.

Punkforever- Well, here's the second to last chapter. I want to post the last one so you guys don't have to wait while I'm in Florida

Two-BitGortez- I will

Note- My muse decided to visit again.

_On one condition. You need to call me by my name in front of everybody._

But, but you _know _I don't like those _things_ that much. After one week on them, they get sickening.

_It's my name, maybe I should leave now. Would you like that? What if I never came back?_

You must come back I _need _you! Fine, ladies and gentleman, please welcome _Granola Bar_, my muse.

_Good, now here is your idea..._

January wasn't a good month for me. I didn't do so well on a math test and I started to count a lot more. Everything needed to be counted. I didn't like counting, it was annoying. I made sure everything was perfect, even my food. I lined things up in neat, straight, rows. It was really annoying and it took _so _long. Mom was mad about the math test, but not too mad.

In February, I met Steve's new girlfriend. I liked her better than the last one, a lot better. She held her tongue around Nate and I, she treated me like I was seven, not two and she didn't laugh at every single word somebody said. She was a lot of fun, not as much fun as Two-Bit, but still fun. She knew all sorts of games to play. Nate didn't talk to her, but she didn't seem to mind like everybody else did. She always gave him a friendly smile.

"Uncle Steve, can I talk to you?" I asked one day. He nodded.

"I really, _really_ like your girlfriend. Can you marry her?" He laughed a little.

"I don't know," he replied. I really, _really _hoped he married her.

In March, I did something bad. I got into a fight with another girl. I ended up getting suspended for three days. Mom wasn't too happy and neither was I. I lost my chocolate privelages for a week. That wasn't fun. Around that time I got a cold. I didn't like it one bit. I couldn't breathe through my nose, or smell.

"Hey, Megan," I called Steve's girlfriend. She let me call her by her first name. I remember his last one, the one I cut the hair off of, had asked me to call her Miss something. I don't remember her last name.

"How do you get colds?" I asked. I never wanted to get one again.

"From germs," she told me. I remembered mom saying something about germs. That's why she always had us wash our hands. That's when I started to wash my hands. Everytime I passed a sink I would wash my hands. Sometimes I washed until they became red and sore. I needed to spend a half an hour in the shower to feel clean. I tried to hide it the best I could, but it wasn't easy. I didn't like being touched by people either. They were covered in germs. I only let Nate touch my hand directly. Only because I made sure he washed his hands.

Nothing big happened in April. I continued counting and washing my hands. I remember spending about an hour in the bathroom because I had scrubbed a part of my left hand until it bled. I covered the scratch in soap and began to clean it even more. I didn't want it becoming infected. The soap stung and I rinsed my hands off and sat on the toilet dabbing the cut with a piece of toilet paper. I came out when it stopped bleeding.

May, May was a bad month. Mom caught me scrubbing my hands. She caught me doing it like seven times before noon on a Saturday. She grabbed my hands and shut off the water.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She was holding my hands and I pulled away. I needed to wash my hands. Who knew where her hands had been? I turned around and tried to turn on the sink. My mom switched something near the toilet bowl and the water wouldn't come out of the sink.

"I turned the water off, what's going on?" she asked me. She was staring at me with dead seriousness. I fidgetted uncomfortably, she was staring at me.

"I don't like germs," I mumbled. She groaned and turned the water back on. I waited until she left the bathroom and I began to scrub. I was going to scrub forever. There were probably so many germs on her hands.

The next incident in May came when mom needed the shower. I was still in the shower, maybe about 15 minutes into it.

"Veronica, I think you've been in there long enough," she told me while knocking gently on the door.

"No," I called out to her. I still felt dirty. I was wasting a lot of water, I knew it. I took a shower every day for a half an hour, sometimes longer. It depended on what I had been doing that day. Mom dragged me out of the shower, wrapped a towel around me and sent me into my room.

June was my birthday month. I wanted a bunch of stuff for my birthday. I wanted more soap, shampoo and a bunch of disinfectant stuff. Mom looked at me like I was strange when I told her. I got my favorite surprise in the first week of June. Steve decided to ask Megan to marry him. Megan said yes, I couldn't be more excited. I really liked her. Then, came the bad news. Megan was going to have a baby. I felt bad about Jonathan, I hadn't thought about him in a while. I suddenly ran out of the living room and into the bathroom slamming the door shut. I wasn't going to kill anymore babies. No, I was going to keep my mouth shut until the baby was born. This way, I couldn't kill it.

One day mom asked me to clean my room. The words she said, I wasn't sure how I didn't kill her. 'It was too soon,' I thought.

"Ron, go clean out your room with your brother. We'll move you into Jonathan's room for your birthday."

_Please, PLEASE review. I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow and I won't have a computer for 10 days. I 'm pretty sure you guys don't want to wait 10 days for the next chapter._


	20. The End

Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- The End

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers- Thanks to you all... Especially those who reviewed almost every chapter. I love you guys, and maybe I'd give you cookies. It's too bad I can't bake. Um, how about Frosted Flakes in chocolate milk? Or, I could have my mom bake a nice chocolate cake, but she is supposed to rest for about 5 weeks. (She had surgery for a Hernia) Or, I could just buy one! Unfortunately, I don't have any money. I'm blowing it in Disney. Now to individual reviews...

XAmberX- I'll have fun, once I get there. 20 hours in a car isn't exactly my idea of fun…

Punkforever- Here's an update, and it isn't at 2 am!

Note- This is the end, but since when do I, charmedgurl1891, leave my characters alone? Never, that's when. I have a perfectly good idea for another, set a few years ahead.

_That I, Granola Bar, thought of._

Yes, you thought of it.

_Say it..._

Granola Bar, are you happy?

_I guess_

So, anyway, this chapter is short, only to tie it up.

"Ron, go clean out your room with your brother. We'll move you into Jonathan's room for your birthday," my mom repeated. I felt my face go white and my eyes start to tear. I stood there, stunned. Did she have to mention _him_? I thought I was finally doing okay with it, even after finding out that Megan was having a baby.

I love my mom to death, but didn't she understand? Six months wasn't long enough. Maybe it would've been different if she hadn't referred to it as _his _room, but as the spare room. No, she referred to it as _his _room, of course. She didn't know I still felt guilty about it. She didn't know.

An almost-8 year old shouldn't have to experience these things. I shouldn't have to feel guilty about something I couldn't have stopped. I shouldn't feel depressed or angry or upset. I should be a crazy little girl without a care in the world. I should be 'Veronica Lynn Curtis; burier of heads in the sand'.

I stayed away from Megan. I was supposed to be happy for her and Steve, but I wasn't. I couldn't be happy. She was going to have a baby, and she did _everything _wrong. Mom told me that when she was pregnant with Nate and I that nobody could smoke in the house and she never drank. Well, everybody smokes around her, she does it herself! I've never seen her drink, but I know Steve drinks. Their house is mess. I never spoke a word to Megan and I avoided her at all costs, even if it messed up my counting.

"Jessica is Veronica mad at me?" she asked. Megan always called everybody by there full names. She even called Two-Bit Keith! It was crazy. I was Veronica, Nate was Nathaniel, mom was Jessica, dad was Sodapop, Steve was Steve, Darry was Darrel, and you get the point.

"No, she just has a thing about babies. I lost mine six months ago. She had thought it was her fault," mom explained. Hopefully nobody said anything more about it.

"Wait, Jess, she hasn't gotten over that?" Steve asked.

"I thought she did, but I don't know," mom answered.

"But, she talks to us." 'Yeah, I talk to you, I don't to Megan, haven't you noticed?' I thought.

I dragged myself into my room. It wasn't dirty, it never was. I always kept it spotless. I just never checked under the bed. I found old coloring books and broken crayons. I even found an old Barbie head. I never liked Barbies and my friend tried to get me to play with her. I told her no, grabbed the doll out of her hand, ripped the head off and threw it under the bed. Then, I found a notebook, a pen, and a note all attached to each other with a blue ribbon.

_'Sometimes it just helps to write,' _read my mom's hand writing. I had read that before Christmas, and kicked the notebook under my bed. I had thought writing wouldn't help. Maybe it would, I should give it a shot. I opened the book and uncapped the pen. 'Where to begin?' I thought. I tried to remember where everything started. What was the first thing I felt bad about?

'Chocolate,' I thought. I wanted that dog so much, I tricked Two-Bit into getting it. It had been a Saturday, and I woke up how I used to every Saturday, to the smell of chocolate cake.

_Reviews get you people a sequel. Speak now or forever hold your peace. If you people have AIM: I'm on gcbabe1891 or xshellzx1891x (I switch back and forth) or Yahoo: I'm skitzo basket case (where the spaces are its an underscore, no spaces...)_


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